‘I spend over $1,000 a year on my contacts’: Woman says eye doctor told her she gets contacts for free—and you might, too

If you feel like you’ve been paying too much for contacts, don’t worry. TikTok user Jenny Park (@mohaewithjennypark) might just have a solution for you. 

In a recent visit to the optometrist, Park saved over $1,000 on contact lenses and left with a better prescription. In a recent viral video, she describes exactly how this happened. 

The video opens on Park in her car, on-screen text floating above her head. “You could be eligible for free contact lenses!!!!” the text exclaims.

Park begins by giving viewers a piece of advice. “This is just a PSA that if you are at a doctor’s office, dentist’s office, eye doctor’s office, feel empowered to ask the questions,” she says. “I have such a hard time doing this.”

She goes on to explain that she is 31 years old and has been wearing contacts since middle school. “So for a very, very long time,” she says. Park then notes that she recently met with a “thoughtful, thorough, nice” eye doctor who gave her some life-changing information.

When are contacts 'free'?

“He told me, ‘Did you know that your eye contacts should be for free, because they are medically necessary?’” Park recounts. She says that this was entirely new information to her.

“No one has ever told me that, in all my years,” she elaborates. “And he was like, ‘Wow, I’m really disappointed no one has ever told you that.’”

“So starting now, my contacts will be for free,” Park says. “Which is crazy, because I think I spend over $1,000 a year on my contacts.”

What else did Park find out?

Free contacts weren’t the only benefit Park got out of her visit—she also found out that her previous lens prescription was inaccurate.

“Last year I went to Target Optical, just, like, a random optometrist,” she says. The Target optometrist lowered her lens prescription by half a point during that visit, and Park went along with it, despite finding it “a little suspicious.” 

“I was like, ‘Whatever, it’s fine. Like, I’m just gonna do it.’” Park says. However, when she went back to work, she regretted her decision to keep the lower prescription.

“Now that I’ve been going to the office, and I have to look at a screen far away, I notice that, like, I can never read anything,” she says. “Like, it’s always so blurry, which is why I was like, ‘I need to go to the eye doctor.’”

When Park attended her most recent appointment, her new eye doctor expressed concern about how low her prescription was. “He was like, ‘It’s really dangerous that you have been driving around with such poor prescription.’” she says. “[He said] ‘You should not be able to see with the prescription they gave you.’”

Park’s new prescription is two points higher than the one she received at Target, and she claims it works far better for her.

“I have really, really bad eyes,” Park elaborates. “So I most recently was wearing negative point five and negative six, and then he gave me negative eight and negative seven.”

“I see so crystal clear,” Park emphasizes at the end of the video. “Like, I cannot believe this is what the world looks like.”

The audience weighs in

Park’s commenters expressed skepticism and excitement. Some shared interest in applying Park’s experience to their own lives, or told similar stories.

“How do you get eligible to do this?” one commenter asked. “I want to try this.”

“Yesss my eye doctor suggested that my contacts could be free since there was such a difference in vision in both my eyes due to my astigmatism,” another commenter shared. “And they were approved by my insurance!!”

A few users tried to provide necessary context to help people understand if the policy of “medical necessity” was applicable to them.

“This is true, medically necessary contacts are fully covered by insurance BUT you have to qualify!” one user elaborated. “Must have an astigmatism over negative three or distance has to be over negative 10, something along those lines.”

“I have negative 21 and negative 17 (glasses script) & astigmatism, and was told I do not qualify for free contacts,” another user countered. “My prescription is over $1k for monthlies.”

Are contact lenses 'medically necessary' under insurance?

The reason many commenters tended to contradict each other is because different insurance providers define “medical necessity” differently. According to ReVision Optometry, an eye care center based in San Diego, California, “necessary contact lenses are a designation based on criteria set by a third-party payor.” 

To get approved for medical necessity, practitioners must submit the required documentation after an eye exam. If their assessment fits the insurance company’s definition of medical necessity, then the company will help cover the contact lenses.

ReVision also notes that the criteria for medical necessity are “are nuanced and sometimes complex." They note that it helps to work with optometrists when applying for medical necessity. 

@mohaewithjennypark If you wear contacts see if they are medically necessary and if your insurance covers!!!! And feel empowered to always ask questions to your health care provider. Blesssss to all the ones who care about their patients and take time to answer q’s!!! #lifehack #lifetips #lifeupgrades #30sontiktok #freecontacts ♬ original sound - jenny park

Experienced optometrists can “identify situations that would be otherwise overlooked to qualify for necessary contact lenses." However, it might require some prompting on your part. So, if you think you might qualify for medical necessity, in the words of Jenny Park: “feel empowered to ask the questions.”

The Daily Dot reached out to Park via TikTok and Instagram direct message.

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